bardictype

Happy February, Everyone!

What To Expect This Month: 

1) An update to the MB demo with the rest of Chapter 7,

2) The release of Button and The Cupid Calamity,

3) Another interview with a MB cast member decided by poll (vote below!),

4) A new Mind Blind side story (featuring Glitch and K),

5) A new "Saucy Side" (featuring Rosy, who vehemently objected to starring in a story which so fragrantly breaches Aeon's fraternization policy),

6) A few ne...

Lady Death's Diary: Chapter 4

I found Lady Delphine in the gardens the next morning in accordance with her whispered invitation, though not before first unearthing every tidbit I could on the sorceress. Unfortunately, this amounted to a great deal of nothing.

Theo’s eyes had sparkled wickedly before he’d launched into a tall-tale about mages who bathed in the blood of girls recently turned fourteen. Father had harrumphed and warned me not to bring up “that woman” in Loren’s presence, causing me to conclude...

Mini-Update is Live!

Despite upping the demo length by 11k words to a total of 194,000 . . . it only adds around 1,000 words per playthrough.

Play here: https://dashingdon.com/play/wildelight/project-armadillo/mygame/

Like I said, it's a mini update. It's the part of Chapter 6 that got moved to Chapter 7, and that I then rewrote to incorporate K's new romance restrictions. A teaser...

Happy January 31st! Have a Poll.

The mini-update will be in the cooker for another few hours, and released around 3pm PST. I added a bunch to Chapter 7 yesterday (the mini-update has an additional 2k words in variety), and am now combing over things to see that they all make sense.

Button's reaction to K can change based on how Button felt about (possibly) discovering that K was a Ment in Chapter 2. It's a lot of coding, and some of it is currently tangled.

Other factors that change Button's reaction include whet...

Mind Blind Interview: Rosy Kim

(Note: I was going to post this tomorrow, but I was too amused to wait. Thanks to everyone who asked questions! I tried to make sure at least one got brought up by everyone who asked.)

A spotlight shines on Nicholas Wiseman, wearing a sequined gold vest and a top hat cocked at a jaunty angle. He sits in one of two cushioned chairs on an otherwise empty stage. A microphone is clutched in his hand.

Nick: Hello, hello! Welcome to the first-e...

Developer's Blog #4: Uncreatively Titled, Because It Covers A Lot of Topics

Next Patreon Mini-Update: January 31! In two days!

Mini-Update Length: 190k words, includes the first bit of Chapter 7.

New Playthrough Length: Around 50k

The next update is significantly smaller, but I wanted to make sure Patrons still have something new to enjoy when Chapter 6 goes live for everyone else (otherwise, I think it would be kind of like watching others eat a candy bar when you already devoured yours). There won...

Delivery for the Damned: On Magic and Reality

Our world did not always have magic. 

Magic was brought into existence by one Mr. Jasper Smocke on the night of October 18th, 1987, at approximately 7:02 pm, Greenwich Time, four miles outside the town of Palnackie in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland.

Mr. Smocke, you see, was indecisive.

Whilst standing at a crossroad that divided in not two but three directions, Mr. Smocke was unable to decide which route was best. Faced with this impossible choice, his atoms simp...

Insomnia-Inspired Poetry

I'm going through my old laptop and finding so much stuff that I'd almost forgotten writing!

 This was written for a poetry assignment in college--I misunderstood the assignment and thought that our poem had to be the image of an hourglass, when in actuality it only needed to include imagery of an hourglass.

Whoops.

Short Story: The Suit

Before I became a teacher and realized that kids were way more fun to work with than adults because kids are still willing have pretend lightsaber battles, I spent a a year working HR (in Dublin, which was amazing, but still). A lot of my days were spent being bored out of my mind and chewing on pen tips, so I wrote short stories and poems that I would then save on the work computers under official-looking names. 

Although the files were probably immediately deleted by the next use...

Let's Talk About K

First off, before reading this post, please make sure you've played Friday's demo update:

https://dashingdon.com/play/wildelight/project-armadillo/mygame/

No, seriously! You'll spoil a major twist for yourself if you read this post before playing Chapter 6. Don't worry. I'll wait.

. . .

. . .

Have you read it yet?

. . .

. . .

Well, if not, it...

Developers Blog . . . And An Update!

Chapter 6 ended up being really long, so it's now Chapter 6 and 7! All of 6 is up today, and the first part of Chapter 7 will be available exclusively to Patrons on the 31st (when Chapter 6 is released publicly.)

Here's the link for those who really, really, REALLY can't wait (that is, people like me):

https://dashingdon.com/play/wildelight/project-armadillo/mygame...

Mind Blind Personality Quiz

It's short and superficial, but you can now find out which Mind Blind character you're most similar to! (At least, according to a handful of random questions and my nonexistent psychology degree.)

Take the quiz here: https://uquiz.com/tPBDCI

Button and the Cupid Calamity

Thanks to all your support on Patreon, I have time to write another IF Holiday ficlet! K and Grayson won the poll for the initial routes (I'll add other RO routes later, but they won't be done in time for Valentine's day). Now it's time to vote on which tropey goodness you want to see in the story. 

Since it's a Valentine's Day fic, I plan on making it unabashedly cheesy and romantic. And what better way to achieve peak squee than to utilize tried-and-true fanfiction mainstays? I l...

Developer's Blog #3

Current Word Count: 181k

Goal Word Count: 190k

Patreon Release Date: January 22nd (in a week!)

Writing has been going well! There's a lot of info that needs to be communicated in Chapter 6, and info dumps always make me a little nervous. But overall, I'm pretty pleased with what I have down. Of course, knowing me, I'll do a last-minute rewrite of at least one major scene the night before release, because there's nothing like...

Mind Blind Blooper Reel #2

“I’m not the mind reader in my family. That would be Nick, and he’s tragically indisposed.” I overexaggerate my shrug. “What are you trying to hint at?”

“Brilliant deduction, Watson. All we need now is a clown and two emus, and we’ll have the entire circus.”

“Why emus?” Sally asks.

You gaze at her seriously. “Why not emus?”

Are emus just discount ostriches? Nick ponders.

To kiss or to kill. That is...

Lady Death's Diary: Chapter 3

“Consequence?” My voice emerged an embarrassingly high squeak. Did Lady Delphine know about my constant rebirths? Magic was certainly involved. If anyone could discover the secret behind my cycle of deaths, it would be the Court Sorceress. And if she knew why I kept repeating my life, perhaps she could help me prevent the current one from ending.

“A consequence of what, precisely?” I repeated.

“Why, of growing older, of course.” Lady Delphine sounded amused by...

Delivery for the Damned: Reggie

Introducing Reginald (Reggie) Beenhouwer

Shaggy brown hair, intimidating size, and copious amounts of facial hair (but only during the full moon).

Your landlord and natural predator, Reggie is a champion of the Supernatural Self-Acceptance Movement, a great cause which you usually support. Alas, the distinction between freedom fighter and indiscriminate cannibal seems to have escaped Reggie’s limited understanding.

Reggie takes “embracing his mo...

Thank you!!!!!!!

There aren't enough exclamation marks in the world to express my gratitude for hitting my second goal! Your support has really blown me away. I'm still in shock, but the good kind of shock that involves lots of blinking and happily repeating the phrase "I have the best readers" (so much so that my family has begun joking that I sound like a broken record--but it's true!).

I've officially let my work know that I'll be taking Saturdays off, which gives me a whole additional day a week to ...

Developer Blog #2

"Of all the jerkface deceptions. Rosy Kim, I do believe I might be falling in love with you."

-Button (potentially)

I'm currently working on Rosy's route in Chapter 6 and may be enjoying it a bit too much. Curmudgeon teacher is a lot of fun to write, what can I say? In this upcoming chapter, people paying attention to affection meters may be surprised to discover that Rosy's fondness for Button occasionally goes up when challenged (alth...

Of Ballrooms and Biscuits

Regency Period Romance 

Featuring: Gray, Nick, and Female Button  

Grayson Black was not a rake.

This was, many of the ton considered, a regretful flaw in the Earl of Wacker’s otherwise enticing personage. Reformed rakes were of course known to make the best husbands, and ambitious mamas despaired at his conspicuous absence from scandal sheets. If Lord Blac...

Sometimes I Just Like To Play With Words

Subtitle: Insults which Glitch has, on multiple occasions, hurled at K when both were drunk

You illogical corn cobbler
You illegitimate moldy shroom
You browbeaten weathervane
You mangled straw-dashed broom

You waterlogged, pockmarked crumpet
You gaseous bulbous newt
You marooned gouted mumblewit
You vedious filangled gahmute

You th...

The First Interviewee is . . . Rosy!

That's right, everyone's favorite(?) jerk teacher has dominated the poll, despite Nick-Nack's valiant effort and Glitch's sulky pouts.

Please address all questions to Ambrose/Ambrosia via the Sanctum of Spoilers Discord, on the mb-interview channel. (If you don't have discord, you can leave a comment on this post, but discord is better at notifying me so that I can write the questions down as they arrive!)

I'll post Rosy's answers at the end of the month (at least, for those que...

Thank you so much!!!

I can't believe I met my first goal! I feel honored by your support (which sounds super formal and stiff, but I am honored--there's no better way to describe the warm, awed, squishy-happy buzz that you all have given me).
Because I met the first goal, I'll use one of the extra days that I can take off to work on a holiday story (either Valentine's or St. Patrick's Day). This story will be released to Patrons first, but then be released for everyone. 
I've so deeply appreci...

MB SAUCY SIDE #1: Kent Version

Regency Period Romance (oh my!)
Featuring: Kent and Button 

Kent Zarneki was not a gentleman.

Polite Society determined a gentleman by two things: wealth and ancestry. And though Kent possessed the first in abundance, as the son of Polish immigrants, he was decidedly lacking in the latter. He was, thus, widely considered by the ton to be “an upstart,” new money earned not through inheritance, as was proper, but in (h...

MB SAUCY SIDE #1: Kenna Version

Regency Period Romance (oh my!) 

Featuring: Kenna and Button 

Kenna Zarneki was not a lady.

Polite Society determined a lady by two things: her dowry and her ancestry. Kenna, as the daughter of Polish immigrants, lacked the latter and, as a “widow” whose husband no scandal sheet had successfully confirmed the prior existence of, had no need for the former. She was...

Character of the Month Interview

Here, you can vote on which character from Mind Blind gets to be interviewed in an end-of-the-month post. (Questions can be asked via the Sanctum of Spoilers discord!)

For this month, Gray and K are being left off the poll since they already have short stories written about them, and I want to make sure all the ROs and characters get some love <3

(Also, I  guarantee that people will have many, many questions for K after reading Chapter 6, so it's probably best to ...

Mind Blind's Birth

I jot down story ideas in the notepad app of my phone whenever inspiration strikes. I recently found my original notes for the story that became Mind Blind--where Sally was the main character and Nick her romantic hero. A lot of things have changed since that original idea, and the format becoming interactive fiction is just the tip of the iceberg!

Lady Death's Diary: Chapter 2

Chapter Two: 

It was my fourteenth birthday. Again.

I touched the nape of my neck, shuddering as I recalled the sharp kiss of metal and the hiss of its descent. My hair fell in loose waves past my shoulders. Another three years wasted, trying to survive past age seventeen. This last life, I’d truly believed that I would be able to marry Loren and escape my destined doom. Future queens were much harder to kill. After all, who wanted to deal...

Lady Death's Diary: Chapter 1

Chapter One: 

The girl in the neighboring cell pressed her face against the bars, her nose intruding into my own cramped enclosure as to sniff out secrets.

The dungeon’s lone glowstone lantern was cheaply enchanted, its bluish light pale and flickering, but illuminated enough for me to make out her disheveled curls and stained apron. A servant in the castle above then, rather than a noble resident. Her cheeks were still rosy and plump, not yet starved of su...

Delivery for the Damned: Sneak Peek #1

So many firsts today! It's exciting!

Here's the first Patreon peek at Delivery for the Damned, my next interactive fiction project after Mind Blind. I usually work on one major project at a time (right now: Mind Blind), while the seeds of my next project begin to coalesce.

In Delivery, you'll play as a delivery person to assorted villains in dangerous lairs/castles/crypts that can’t be accessed by normal mail service. After all, evil overlords...